... ... ... ... ... On Tue, 11 Mar 2003, Steve Simmons wrote: @> The biggest loose end: since Dragaera is clearly an ancient human @> colony, why don't off-world souls get reincarnated into Dragaeran @> bodies? @> @> Answer: Dragaeran reincarnation is a local effect of the gods. The @> souls of those who die outside the scope of the gods go elsewhere. @> Morganti weapons interfere with the Gods capturing and recycling @> the souls, thereby making the body unrevivifiable. I also assumed that the reincarnation effect was a direct result of the presence of the Gods. Presumably, people that are killed outside of Dragaera go wherever people usually go. (In Mr. Brust's universe, I'd bet on "nowhere".) I think this is at least supported by the events of _Issola_, although it's not explicitly stated; I'm thinking here of Vlad's revelation about the purpose of the Paths of the Dead. The Gods generate some kind of magic field that captures the minds of dead people[0] and stores them somewhere until they can be brought back again for further use. This also explains the Dragaeran attitude towards them; they aren't really religious figures in the sense that we think of them. They're more like the Federal Government. Anybody with sufficient skill and a sufficient source of power to draw on could generate that kind of field and produce the same results. [0] Another tangent: are new souls ever generated? If not, the presence of Morganti weapons will eventually mean the destruction of all life on Dragaera unless somebody starts breaking them.